SurgeXperiences 315

Thanks for dropping by. Welcome to the 15^th edition of SurgeXperiences, the only Surgical Grand Rounds that is devoted to the best surgical related posts!

Without further ado,

Dr DJ, a surgeon from Mumbai, India who blogs at “Dr DJ’s Surgical Adventures” brings us two great posts. First he chronicles about a difficult situation where things are not in their expected places.

“The doctor doing the CT suddenly yells, “Where is the doctor that managed to do this”. The intern accompanying the patient almost had a fit”

Read on to believe it for yourself!

Medical practice is not universal, medical customs and indications differ widely between countries and indeed patients’ expectations differ even more. The second piece of literary from Dr DJ sheds some light on how cultural differences between doctors and their patients are common and may have important clinical implications for clinical encounter.

“I would love to have a middle ground and say it is our duty to inform the patient that a complete medical examination is required, but how many would agree to strip down completely just for a fever?”

Next up, ER Doc over at “Tales from the Serenity Now Hospital” shares a story of complete lack of common sense.

“I try to educate my patients as much as possible on things. I don’t always do a good job when its really busy. But this time I was sure to explain what milking the prostate really is”

Over at “Two weeks on a trolley” is a post titled Dr Ima Toilet that explores the worst things that could happen to you on the wards. Read on to discover how he was peed directly into his eyeballs during a delivery, drenched in liquid poo after inserting a tablet into a child’s bottom, not forgetting an encounter where a patient approached him from behind and urinated on the back of his legs. Poor guy!

There is also a mention about a med student who gulped a piece of cadaver adipose tissue and eventually became a surgeon. Read on for a good laugh!

Romana, a plastic surgeon in Little Rock, AR reviews a journal article about “Histologic Relationship of Pre-auricular sinuses to Auricular Cartilage”. [Read Here]

With the number of injured casualties continues to escalate, MSF’s surgical units in Haiti continue to work around the clock, providing relief and treatment despite having limited staffs and resources. However as the death toll in Haiti continues to climb, frustration appears to be overwhelming as relief efforts are seemed to be slow and disorganized. [Read Here]

Over at the “Forensic Scientist Blog” that covers the life, times and interests of a real life forensic science technician, he explores how forensic scientists use body parts to identify and perform criminal examinations of the deceased. He highlighted the role of prosthetics implanted by surgeons as well as scars from routinely performed operation such as appendectomies are indeed handy in aiding the process of identification.[Read Here]

Though I strongly believe that everyone should have access to a good defense, even I wondered how some lawyers can help defend people who have done horrendous things. When lawyers help killers and child molesters off the hooks my finding some legal loopholes, you got to ponder if they’re really upholding the legal system or merely just thinking about monetary gain and their ego.

Bongi a south African surgeon who blogs at “Other Things Amanzi”(my all time favourite) mourns over the death of his patient and rants about why he hates lawyers.

And that’s it for this edition of SurgeXperiences, please send submissions for the next edition via this form. Also , for anyone who wishes to join the ever growing family of SurgeXperiences, do not hesitate to contact Jeffrey who runs the show.

SurgeXperiences 315-Call for submissions

Thank you for paying a brief visit. SurgeXperiences is the one and only blog carnival that assorts the best surgery related posts in the medical blog sphere today. It was pioneered by one of my esteemed counterpart, Jeffrey Leow of Monash Medical Student who is adventurous enough to open up new areas of thoughts and bringing something new to the surgical blogging community.

SurgeXperiences was first started on 1st July 2007 and it is hosted by various hosts ranging from surgeons, anaesthetists, radiologists, students and even to patients. It is published fortnightly and each season lasts approximately a year.

The current edition, SurgeXperiences(314) is up at Suture for a Living. Yours truly will be hosting the upcoming edition (SurgeXperiences 315) on the 24th of January for the first time.

Being a fresh 3rd year medical student with minimal surgical experience, knowledge and background, it is my fervent hope to still be able to contribute to this carnival by attempting to produce a succinct post that will hopefully satisfy readers' likes.

It is an uneasy but apprehensive experience for me since this is my first post and I certainly do not want to disappoint the readers, so please bear with me while I accustom myself to how to system works.

Submissions can be done here.

Dateline : 22th of January, Friday

Here are all the previous issues of SurgeXperiences for your reading pleasure and do not hesitate to contact Jeffrey who masterminded this remarkable blog carnival-SurgeXperiences-Where we share our surgical experiences!

Tremendous experience, Summer Vacation Research Scholarship

Even as the academic year winds down, I was preparing to meet a new challenge: 8 weeks in a laboratory that will hone my scientific skills and prepare me for a possible career in research. I was fortunate enough to work in the Steroid Receptor Biology lab in Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research as part of the initiative supported by the Cancer Council of Victoria.

Such programs give students a chance to immerse themselves in cutting edge medical research in tertiary research institutions. For an international student like me, it is a pivotal experience that helped me decided whether to pursue a career in research, and to consider a possible career of being a physician-scientist.

Throughout my placement here, I realized researchers/clinicians who bridge the gap between clinical medicine and basic science are in a unique position to exploit the expanding knowledge of human genome and other recent advances to make remarkable discoveries that will benefit the human health.

The range of possible research areas that I was exposed to is immense. Emerging areas include identification and use of markers to allow early detection of ovarian cancer, gaining an in depth understanding about the exact pathophysiology and discovery of new molecular targets for possible therapeutic agents spearheaded by the steroid biology receptor group over in PHI.

Upon completion of this program, I truly recognize the increasing importance of science and research for practicing physician. I probably didn’t have any idea that I am going to do research before this experience. This journey down under really does build up the excitement, but even if I decided not to pursue research somewhere down the line, I am undoubtedly better prepared for 21^st century medicine after working in the lab.

By immersing myself in the project looking into the “Pathogenesis of Granulosa Cell Tumour”, I am proud to say that I have mastered a few key techniques in laboratory research. Among the techniques are cell culture, plasmid purification, bacterial cell transformation, mammalian cell transfection, PCR, Western Blotting and many more.

Personally, I have the impression that research is more tedious and meticulous compared to clinical medicine. Moment to moment awareness is crucial to avoid to avoid making mistakes that could jeopardize the whole experiment. Techniques such as cell culture are indeed demanding requiring strict adherence to sterile practices to prevent unwanted contamination.

Besides learning core techniques, one of the most valuable lesson I have gained from the people here is to be analytical in science. I was taught by my supervisor to think critically when things go wrong in science. Critical skills in investigate thinking do provide a basis for better medical practice, better assessments of evidence for that practice that will change rapidly in my generation of physicians and a better foundation for new biology of medicine. Spending time to search for answers as well as fixing problems that arise truly intrigues my inquisitive mind.

Although the results for my experiments are not conclusive, I have indeed benefited tremendously as in PHI there has been a great focus on understanding the aspects of translational research, a valuable experience for medical students beginning their careers, By having done an independent study project, I have gained insights in how things move from the lab bench to patient bedside.